


Countdown

by Smart_heart



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smart_heart/pseuds/Smart_heart
Summary: After months of seeing them pining after each other, Hilda suggests that her mother invite the librarian to their New Year’s celebrationInspired by a prompt on tumblr: “Johanna draws the librarian”
Relationships: Johanna | Hilda's Mum & The Librarian (Hilda), Johanna | Hilda's Mum/The Librarian (Hilda)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> This was written and revised very quickly. I just wanted to post a Holiday fic

“Okay, you know I love you, but this is getting ridiculous.”

Johanna looked up from her drawing table to find her daughter at her side, with her arms crossed and a look of frustration on her face.

“What are you talking about?”

“This!” Hilda pointed to the sketch she had been working on, a woman with short dark hair and sharp features. In the last few months, it wasn’t the first drawing the girl had seen of that person. She would find her mother doodling her on napkins while they waited their food on restaurants, on the dirt with a stick when they were at the park, but usually on her drawing table, when her mother would space out during her self imposed working hours.

Johanna blushed like a child who had been caught stealing biscuits. She couldn’t deny that a certain librarian had been on her mind quite often, but she had hoped Hilda wouldn’t notice. She didn’t think her daughter would be offended by it, either, but apparently she was.

“I- I’m sorry.” She offered meekly, making the girl sigh

“You’ve nothing to apologize for, mum, but come on! The two of you have been dating for months and you’re going nowhere! It’s… getting a little frustrating to watch, is all.” She finished rubbing the back of her neck and looking at the ground. She knew she shouldn’t stick her nose in her mother’s love life, but someone had to do something!

Johanna blushed even harder and seemed to gag with air. “We’re not dating!” She protested. “We’ve just been going out. As… friends.”

Once more, Hilda sighed. “But you wish there was more, don’t you?”

Her mother avoided her gaze, fixing her stare on the doodle instead. “I don’t know”, she said half heartedly, sounding like she couldn’t even convince herself. “I’m fine with how things are, I guess.”

“Mum. It was a rhetorical question. You’re not fooling anyone.”

The woman’s hands came to her face. “Okay, fine, you win! But there’s nothing I can do to know if she likes me back. She might not even be into girls!”

Hilda lifted one eyebrow. She had seen how the librarian looked at her mother when they went to the library together. She would bet all her nittens that the librarian was _quite_ into girls. “Why don’t you make an experiment?”

Johanna took her hands away from her face and looked at her daughter. “What experiment?”

Hilda shrugged. “Frida told me there’s a tradition in which you kiss people in the New Year. You could invite her to spend New Year’s Eve with us, and try to kiss her at midnight. If she kisses you back, you have your answer.”

A gasp came from the woman. “I can’t do that! I’d be mortified!” 

Resisting an urge to groan, Hilda answered. “Well, at least you could invite her to spend it with us. That seems like a way to say ‘hey, we’re more than good friends!’l

Johanna took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, I think that I can do.”

“Good. I expect you to have invited her until the end of the day.”

“What?!”

“I know you, mum. If you don’t do it soon, you just keep putting it off until it’s too late. So if you don’t do it today, I’ll go to the library and ask her myself, got it?” She crossed her arms and did her best to look imposing, making Johanna narrow her eyes.

“Hey, I’m your mother. You can’t do that!”

“Twig!” Hilda shouted, heading for the couch where she had placed her scarf and cloak. “Come on boy, we’re paying a visit to the library!”

“Okay, okay!” Johanna got up in a haste, putting her hands in front of her in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll do it.”

Hilda smiled and mused that she’d do for a pretty decent cupid should she ever wish it.

_#_#_#_

Maven felt the corners of her mouth lift ever so slightly as she read the message upon the computer. The new shipment of books for the library was on its way. Every year or so, the city hall would release some money for her to spend in new books for Trollberg’s library, and she had made her selection just the day before.

She ordered children’s books, the more trending young adult novels, a few that were on flora and fauna, as she had seen in the news that many exciting new things had been discovered by the authors, and others that she was sure the citizens of Trollberg could use. But the ones that she was most excited for were a few on drawing and design. From the first day that Johanna had visited the library, books on her area of work had seemed to be her favorite, and the woman had long since finished reading every single book on the topic that the library had. Luckily, this new shipment would give Maven a chance to see the Johanna more often.

The librarian sat back against her chair with a pleased smile on her face. She was wondering which of her duties she should work on next when, as if the woman had been summoned by a spell, Johanna walked up to her counter and cleaned her throat to get her attention.

“Oh! Good afternoon, Johanna. What may I help you with?” She asked, secretly hoping that she had just come to the library to chat with her. It wouldn’t make much sense, seeing as they had each other’s cellphones and usually used text messages to arrange their… _meetings_ , but it didn’t harm to dream.

Johanna shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and Maven realized that she seemed really nervous about something, even though it was clear she was trying to hide it.

A number of bad scenarios danced through her mind. Hilda was hurt. Johanna had been dumped from her job. They were moving away from Trollberg. _Johanna didn’t want to continue seeing her_.

Fortunately Johanna found her voice quickly enough that Maven didn’t have much time to worry. “Actually, I was wondering if you’d like to spend New Year’s Eve with us.”

The words rushed out of her mouth so quickly that the librarian blinked in surprise and had to wait a few seconds for the sounds to make sense. Once they did, she smiled and felt her heart flutter pleasantly in her chest. She was about to open her mouth to answer when Johanna spoke up again.

“We’re going to spend it at the moonshine park, you know? With a few of Hilda’s friends.” She spoke, hoping that the assurance that it was an event between friends would put the librarian at ease, letting her know that Johanna in no way expected more from her than she was ready to give.

However, at the affirmation, the librarian seemed to deflate almost imperceptibly. _Maybe it’s not exactly a date_ , she thought, _but I still get to spend time with her._

Maven put on an inviting smile on her face (at least that was what she was going for. There was a good chance she had ended up with some sort of grimace) and accepted the invitation. Johanna seemed to light up after that, her usual easy confidence returning to her. They set up the date, arranging the time and exact place before parting their ways. 

When Johanna had closed the library door behind her, Maven placed her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands, exhaling loudly. Part of her was ecstatic at the invitation, but another part of her couldn’t help but feel like she was getting _nowhere_ in her relationship with Johanna. Surely the other woman had, at this point, noticed all the signs that Maven liked her, and yet she didn’t do any _real_ move. New Year’s Eve would have been the perfect opportunity, but the emphasis she put on assuring it was an event for friends showed that she probably didn’t even want to think about being more than that.

Maven shook her head. What the hell was she doing? There was a girl she liked, and this girl didn’t like her. Simple as that. All she could do was move on and be grateful for the friendship they were nurturing. This much sentimentalism over a matter was decidedly unlike her. And wholly unproductive, she thought as she scanned the library’s basement floor for her book cart, wondering where she’d left it last so she could continue her job. 

She got up, but not before grabbing her earphones and her music player. As she clicked on the “random” option, Hayley Kiyoko’s Sleepover began playing.

Well damn it. 

_#_#_#_

“Mum, stop fidgeting!” Hilda didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at her mother’s nervous demeanor as they laid down the picnic cloth on the ground. They had chosen the most recluse spot of the park they could find, and thankfully there hadn’t been much snow in the last days, so they hadn’t had trouble shoveling it away. 

Their spot was under a big oak, and Johanna sat near the trunk before grabbing the basket they had brought to check if everything was indeed there. For the third time that evening.

“I’m not fidgeting!” She protested. “I’m just… cold.”

“Sure you are.” Hilda sighed, crawling near her mother and taking the woman’s hands between her own. “I’ll pretend I believe that. But I’ll assure you you have nothing to worry about.”

Johanna gazed lovingly at her child, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. It _had_ always been difficult to fool her. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

Right after that, they heard Frida’s shout of “I’m here!” behind them, the girl followed close by by her parents and they both got up to greet them. Seeing her daughter talk and play with her friends made her calm, even as the minutes passed by with no sign of the librarian. Maybe she couldn’t the relationship with Maven that she yearned for, but she had this. She had her beautiful daughter safe and sound and happy with her friends. And even if she wanted even more than this, this was definitely enough.

_#_#_#_

Maven smiled to herself as she lifted a tree branch to allow herself passage between the plants. She had never thought about how fortunate it was that Johanna’s child had blue hair before. She was always easy to spot. In fact, if the woman hadn’t seen the blue from meters away, she might’ve never found this hidden spot they had settled themselves in. 

She found Johanna sitting on a checked cloth, warming her hands on a cup of coffee while a woman with short brown hair tied back in a ponytail and gigantic glasses talked her ears off beside her. The poor dear looked somewhere between bored and exasperated with the conversation. She hoped she could help. 

As she walked closer, Johanna looked up and smiled brightly at her. The librarian felt a blush creep up on her cheeks that had nothing to do with the cold.

“Sorry for being late.” She said as she stopped by the edge of the cloth. “I got kind of lost in the park. Took me about ten minutes to find you.”

She supposed she could’ve texted her, but she really didn’t want to bother Johanna in case she was having fun with her other friends.

“It’s no matter!” Johanna chirped. “I’m happy you came! Sit down, you must be freezing.”

Maven shrugged, lowering herself down in the cloth. “Not really. I have good resistance to cold.”

She had actually cast a warmth spell on her coat before leaving home, but that was beside the point.

Sensing that Johanna would want to talk privately with the newcomer, the woman that had been talking to her excused herself and went over to where a couple and a man Maven assumed was said woman’s husband were having a conversation. Close by, the tree children were playing some sort of card game, and Johanna’s child was looking terribly confused.

“What are they playing?” Maven gestured to the trio.

“Oh! It’s deer’s antlers, I think. It’s a local game. Have you ever played it?”

The librarian searched through her memory, but found no recollection of such a game. Even though she had always lived in Trollberg, her family had always been somewhat reclused. “No, I don’t think I have.”

“Really? I’d love to teach you when they’re done! I was a champion at it when I was younger!” She informed with a pleased smile.

“Champion of which championship?”

“The one my cousins and I held once!” 

Maven coughed to hide her laugh. “That doesn’t count.”

“Of course it does!” Johanna protested with her eyebrows drawn together.

“No, Johanna, it really doesn’t.”

“It does!”

Seeing that she could never win this argument with the stubborn woman, Maven limited herself to lift her eyebrows and utter a sarcastic “sure it does.”

That’s when she remembered she was still holding something. “Oh.” She lifted the thermal bottle to show it to the other woman. “I brought some tea. Enough to share, if you want some.”

Johanna looked somewhat taken aback. “Oh, you didn’t need to!”

Maven shrugged. “Well, I was going to bring it for myself, so I thought it wouldn’t harm to bring some more.”

She picked one of the clean cups that been set just by the picnic basket and filled it with aromatic tea, steam rising from the contact of the hot liquid with the cold air, and offered it to Johanna. She hesitated, glancing down at her cup of coffee. Tea had never been one of her favorite beverages, and she had figured that strong coffee would be the best option to keep her awake until midnight that night, but Maven was looking at her in such a way that made her want to eat grass before disappointing her.

So she took the cup and brought it to her lips. She couldn’t stop her grimace at the taste, but she hoped the librarian hadn’t noticed. No such luck. Maven was soon taking the cup from her hands.

“Sorry.” She smiled apologetically before putting one hand inside the pocket of her winter coat, coming out with a small white package, about the size tip of a thumb. She ripped it open and dumped its contents into the cup. “I forget not everyone likes bitter tea.”

The cup was then once again in Johanna’s hands, and this time when she took a sip out of it, it was infinitely more bearable. Maven fixed herself a cup and they spent a few minutes in comfortable silence, taking in the winter scenery around them while leaning back against the trunk of the oak. The silence was broken by one of Hilda’s friends saying “Antlers!” in a rather loud, victorious voice as she placed her last card on the ground. 

The boy groaned at having lost, and Hilda asked for a revenge match. Seeing that if they began another game, they would be unavailable for a long time, Johanna called her daughter over to talk to them.

“Oh! Hey, Miss librarian!” She greeted when she noticed her presence, making Maven smile. She had already told the girl that she could call her Maven, or Miss Underhill if she wasn’t comfortable with using her first name, but Hilda insisted on using that nickname.

“Hey, Hildie. How was the game?”

Hilda shrugged. “Frida won. I’m not quite sure I understood the rules correctly.” She admitted as she sat down.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’ll improve with time. Oh!” Johanna exclaimed. “You know, Maven’s never played this game before either. Why don’t you bring the cards over here so I can go over the rules with the two of you and give you some tips?”

Hilda lit up. At least it seemed her mother had managed some conversation with the woman. “I’d like that! Hold on.”

She scurried off to borrow the playing cards from David, and then returned to her spot on the cloth. Johanna took them off her hand and began explaining with the expertise of someone who had never stopped playing, even though she probably hadn’t for years. They didn’t know how much time had gone by, but Hilda had already dried two cups of hot cocoa when they heard the woman Johanna had been talking to cup her hands around her mouth and say:

“One minute, everybody!”

All of them got up, startled at realizing how late it was already. Hilda took hold of her mother’s hand, and with mischief in her eyes said “The kids and I will go over there to see the fireworks better!”

She ran off with the two other children, and the other adults seemed to be quite entertained with finding a spot in which they could see the sky as well. Meanwhile, the two of them remained under the twisted branches of the tree. 

The librarian realized, with some surprise and concern, that Johanna had gone quite tense beside her. 

“Are you cold?” She asked, moving closer to her friend and sliding one hand around her waist. She had hoped her warmth would have soothed her cold, but Johanna only got more tense. Icy fingers clutched at Maven’s heart as she realized that _she_ must be the problem. Johanna wasn’t comfortable with being relatively alone with her in this situation.

She tried to retrieve her arm as she apologized, but Johanna was quicker and surprised her by grabbing the hand that was at her waist and holding it there.

“No, it’s okay.” She said. And then, realizing what she’d done, she blushed furiously as she locked her gaze with Maven’s. For beautiful, awkward seconds, both just stared into each other’s eyes, the mist caused by their breathing on the cold air covering the small distance between their faces. The world seemed to be reduced only to the two of them, until an outer noise echoed in the night.

“Ten, nine, eight…” The voices of the people who had chosen to celebrate at the park rose up for the countdown. Johanna seemed as though she had startled out of a trance. Even though she was now looking at Maven with a mixture of fear and indecision on her face, she didn’t move away.

“Seven, six, five…” Maven furrowed her brown, wondering if the woman was okay. But Johanna made no sign that she wanted the librarian to go away, and so she didn’t.

“Four, three, two.” A radical change happened in Johanna’s expression. She now had her chin set with determination. Maven had no time to wonder about it before the other woman’s face was moving closer, closer, until all she could feel was her breath on her face.

None of them heard the others shout “One! Happy New Year!” as their lips touched, gently and shyly at first. Johanna drew back, looking worried.

“Is this okay?” She asked among the happy shouts of celebration around them.

Maven smiled and kissed her again, and this time they lingered, enjoying the feel of their lips pressed against each other’s.

“It’s more than okay”

The New Year, they decided as the warmth of each other’s bodies shielded them from the cold, and the sweetness of each other’s lips made their hearts pick up pace, had been worth waiting for.


End file.
